Ahram Weekly

Back to their homeland

Back to their homeland

Al-Ahram Weekly

ON 14 MAY Egypt received the bodies of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were beheaded in Libya by Islamic State (IS) in February 2015. Head of the Coptic Church in Egypt Pope Tawadros II was at the airport to receive the bodies, brought in coffins aboard an aircraft from Misrata.

The victims, all workers from Minya governorate, were beheaded on a beach in Sirte as shown in a video posted by the terrorist group. The bodies were discovered in October last year after the area where they were buried was recaptured from IS. Just a day later Egyptian war planes attacked IS sites in Libya, killing 64 IS members.

At the time Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi called on the UN to issue a resolution according to which an international coalition would be created and authorised to intervene in Libya to eradicate IS.